


I Hope You're OK

by Dastupid



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Broken Bones, Cute Kids, Depressed Reiner Braun, Fluff and Angst, Idiots in Love, M/M, Minor Bertolt Hoover/Annie Leonhart, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29137731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dastupid/pseuds/Dastupid
Summary: This is for Scioubeez because imma SIMP, and it was supposed to be a one-shot but I lack self-control.Reiner and Porco stood on the dock watching their friends' silhouettes fade into the distance, Bertholdt, Marcel, Annie and Pieck had gone off to retrieve the founding titan from the island devils, and who knew how long it would be before they come back.never the less Porco was stuck with the sorry excuse for the armoured titan in the meantime, he might as well get on with it.
Relationships: Reiner Braun & Bertolt Hoover, Reiner Braun & Pieck Finger & Marcel Galliard & Porco Galliard & Bertolt Hoover & Annie Leonhart, Reiner Braun/Porco Galliard
Comments: 25
Kudos: 62





	1. Chappy one

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scioubeez](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scioubeez/gifts).



> hi, I'm sorry I am really bad at keeping things short.

Reiner ran down the street struggling to keep his bright red armband on his skinny arm, as per usual he woke up at the ass crack of dawn too excited to sleep any longer and has made it his mission to wake up the other warriors. First was Marcel and Porco of course, since the two brothers lived in the same part of the internment zone as him.

Reiner carefully scaled the stacked firewood outside the small rickety house, that like most houses on this side of town including his own, would be better off being referred to as a shack. Reiner slammed his hands on the window narrowly avoiding falling into the small room as Marcel opened the window. Reiner smiled at the two boys still in their pyjamas and just bordering on shouted at them.  
“Come on! You're leaving today! They're going to have a parade!”

Marcel laughed tiredly as he closed the window watching Reiner jump back down to the street to wait for them. Marcel turned back and laughed at the perturbed look on his little brother's face. Porco rolled his eyes and got up.  
“I don't see why I have to get up and dressed for YOUR big day.”  
Marcel rolled his eyes and grabbed his brother into a chokehold to give him a hard noogie. “Hey, I wanna spend the time I still have here with my, sweet baby brother~”

Porco pushed Marcel off of him and struggled to press his hair back down flat. “Okay, okay, okay! I’ll get ready.”

Marcel rolled his eyes and started getting himself dressed for the day. As the two brothers ran down the small steps and towards the door, the boy’s mother grabbed them both.  
“And where are you two off to so early?”  
Marcel flashed her as bright of a smile as he could “we’re gonna go hang out with the others!”  
Their mom slowly rolled her eyes and patted their backs to push them out the door “alright, don't keep Reiner waiting then.”

Marcel and Porco ran over to the small boy sitting patiently on the bottom step, Reiner smiled up at them briefly before taking off towards the nicer end of town, where the homes aren't falling apart and there was more space between the housing. The two watched as Reiner almost slammed himself into the window and yelled for Bert to wake up, they waited for quite a while with no response.

Porco could see the wheels turning in Reiner’s head as the small kid started walking around to the cat door in the back, the Galliard brothers watched as Reiner squeezed himself through the cat door and disappeared inside the house. 

The two looked at each other waiting awkwardly for the other two when loud screaming came from inside the house, and Reiner came shooting back out of the cat door. Reiner patted his white uniform clean. “He’s on his way”  
Porco felt an uncomfortable shiver run up his spine at the sadistic smirk that spread across Reiner’s face like the back door of Bertholdt's house burst open and the long boy whose hair was dripping wet walked over to them. Reiner gave the tall lanky boy a wide smile, Bert sighed and shook his head, and gave the brothers a wave.  
“Hey guys, I had an unexpected shower”

Reiner grabbed onto Bert’s hand and dragged him off down the street, towards Pieck’s house. “Come on we gotta get the girl’s then we can go get apples from Mr. Leonhardt's tree!”

As they made their way further out of the town, and the sun began to rise further into the sky, the residents of Libero were waking up, coming out to go to work or to do their chores, a young mother laughed as she watched one on the young warriors almost run out in front of a cart. The four stopping and waiting for the large draft horses to pass by before continuing their mad dash to get to their friends. 

As they walked up to Pieck’s house, the girl’s dad was already sitting on the porch watching the world go by, he smiled as the boys ran up the porch, he broke into a low cough at which the smirks from the four boys dropped completely as they waited for him to recover.  
“I assume you boys are here for my daughter?”  
“Yes,” the four said unanimously.

The man laughed and stood from his rickety porch chair, and headed inside his home. The four looked between themselves awkwardly, as per usual Marcel was the one to break the silence.  
“Pieck said he was getting better-”  
“Doesn’t sound like it!”

Porco snapped at Marcel, Porco held his ground as Marcel turned to glare at him.  
“It doesn’t matter we should trust what Pieck tells us.”

The boy’s waited the rest of the time it took for Pieck to get ready in awkward silence, as soon as the door opened up and Pieck gave them her bright endearing smile the four boys instantly brightened up as well.

Pieck took the lead racing the way to the forest where Annie and her dad’s cabin was. As they ran through the wood, they could see Annie was already up and waiting for them. The blonde girl was sitting on the large stump her dad used for chopping wood, her head in her hand as she watched the others come running over.  
“Hi, Annie” Bert smiled brightly as he sat down beside the small Girl.

The kids ran around Leonhardt’s garden for almost an hour eating apples from the tree out front and throwing wet leaves that had fallen early at each other in the safe cover of the trees. Reiner was chasing Porco with a pile of soggy leaves in hand, he grabbed the younger boy by the back of the collar and shoved the leaves down the boy's uniform shirt. 

Porco screeched and jumped into the air as the cold wet leaves travelled down his back, he could hear Reiner laughing behind him as he finally managed to shake the last of the leaves out of his shirt. Porco smirked to himself grabbing a handful of the leaves on the ground and whipped around to shove them in Reiner’s face as payback. The smaller boy fell to the ground spitting out leaves, and to Porco’s displeasure, kept giggling! Porco watched as Reiner swung around and started running away from him.  
“COME BACK HERE YOU SWINE!”

The two ran across the yard chucking leaves back and forth, at least until Reiner abruptly stopped and stared up into a tree quietly. Porco couldn't stop fast enough and slammed into Reiner taking them both to the ground. As Porco tried to regain his senses he felt shifting under him, he glared down at Reiner who looked back up at him quietly.  
“Why did you stop?”

He scoffed as Reiner simply looked up towards the branches of a large pine tree, Porco followed the other's gaze up the tree to where a small brown bird was just flying away from a nest of dry grass and sticks.  
“I dare you to go up there and look for eggs”  
Porco smirked as Reiner’s focus snapped back towards him at those words.  
“Huh? It's the end of summer, there won't be any egg’s now”  
“Sounds like you’re scared”  
“I'm not scared of anything!”

Reiner’s face hardened and he pushed himself out from under Porco to start climbing the big tree, Porco watched as Reiner made his way up the trunk, the small boy would slip occasionally which made Porco’s heart drop every time. Despite the clumsy way up Reiner made it up to the nest, he reached into the nest and Porco watched as Reiner’s face brightened up and he yelled down to Porco.  
“IT'S BABIES!”

Unfortunately, Porco wasn't the only one to hear Reiner’s yelling as the others ran over Porco could see the anger on Marcel’s face as he stepped forward to yell up at Reiner.  
“REINER COME DOWN NOW! YOU'RE GONNA GET HURT!”  
Porco could see Reiner tense up as he began to slowly make his way down the trunk, but he never really made it far back down as Marcel opened his mouth to start reprimanding the small kid again.  
“WHAT DID YOU THINK-”

Marcel didn't get a chance to finish telling Reiner off, the loud yell had made the poor kid jump, and he was now hurtling headfirst towards the ground. The other warriors gasped and started running towards the tree but it was too late, Reiner landed with a loud crunch which was quickly followed by a sharp wail. 

Reiner sat up holding his arm close to his chest, it was bent at a weird angle, very obviously broken, the arm was already starting to steam up. The others crowded around making sure he wasn't hurt anywhere else.  
“What were you thinking? Why were you even up there?”  
“Porco told me to look for eggs so I-”  
“TRAITOR!”

They all turned to look at Porco who shoved his face into Reiner’s to get his point across.  
“It’s not my fault you fell out of the stupid tree!”  
“Porco enough! It's no one's fault we all got carried away playing around”  
they all turned towards Marcel the boy smiled at his friends and sighed.  
“Should I go get my dad?”  
They all turned to Annie but before Bert could agree with her Marcel shook his head.  
“No today's supposed to be important, and Reiner is already healing. Let's just wait, and then we can go into town before the parade.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The six kids were walking through the town smiling at those who came up to congratulate them on their new upcoming mission. They didn't slow though, they had a set destination in mind, Mrs. Fink’s ice cream shop. The kids stopped across the street and dug in their pockets to find the miserable amount of change they could accumulate.  
“This is barely enough for one!”  
“Annie’s right, someone’s gotta go in there and convince her.”

At Pieck’s words, they all turned towards Reiner who was still quietly counting over all the change with a hard frown. After a few seconds Reiner paused feeling everyone's stare’s resting on him, he slowly looked up at them all and took in their intense gazes, he took a second to look behind him just to make sure it was him they were focused on and not some commotion in the distance, he turned back to them and sure enough, they were all still watching.  
“What-”  
“Come on Reiner, you're small and cute, if anyone can get away with something like this it’s you!”  
At Bertholt’s words, Reiner brightened up considerably.  
“You think I'm cute? Okay, what do I have to do?”

As Porco watched Bert excitedly explain the plan to Reiner, he could feel the heat of anger rising in his chest, why did Bert have to call Reiner cute? And why did he have to get all bashful about it? And why did Porco feel angry about it? Porco was pulled from his musings by Reiner taking everyone’s change and running across the street and into the ice cream shop.

Reiner walked quietly up to the counter, the top of which his shoulders just cleared. He looked up over the counter and smiled at the elderly lady across from him.  
“Hello young warrior, how can I help you, Mr. Braun?”  
Reiner gave her a cheeky smile and put all the change on the counter.  
“My friends are leaving today, I saved up to get us all treats before they go!”

Mrs. Fink smiled and began to count the change on the counter, Reiner began to get nervous hoping he could pull off this little scam.  
“You’re a bit short dear I-”  
“Oh sorry, I tried my best to save up, guess it wasn’t enough…”

Reiner tried to pull off his most destressed pout and turned towards the door, he tried to control a small smirk as she called him back to the counter.  
“My apologies, young warrior, it seems I miscounted, you have just enough!”  
Reiner turned back to the counter and smiled at her brightly.  
“Six cups’ please!”

The other five warriors cheered as Reiner came back outside holding a tray in one hand while shoving his own ice cream in his face. They all grabbed their ice cream and lifted their cups in celebration, they gave cheers knocking their ice cream cups together before heading towards the compound. Porco ended up falling back beside Reiner, and he truly made a valiant effort to ignore the other boy, honestly, he did, but he just looked way too smug eating his mint chocolate ice cream.

“Who eats mint ice cream?”  
He tried to contain his laughter at the perturbed look that crossed Reiners's face.  
“Who puts hot sauce on turkey sandwiches?!”  
“You promised not to talk about that!”

Reiner shoved a spoonful of his ice cream in Porco's mouth, making the younger boy leap away in pure terror as he started to spit out the minty ice cream as Reiner laughed behind him. Porco snapped back up to get in Reiner’s face ready to shove his own ice cream in the boy’s face, that was until a hand came around his head, and his and Reiner’s head’s met with a loud thunk.

The two boys fell to either side of the street holding on to their heads as Marcel stood between them, they both looked up at the other boy trying to look as innocent as possible.  
“You two are gonna be stuck alone together for a while, so you better start getting along”  
“We won’t be alone! Zeke will be here!”  
Porco smirked up at his brother but the smirk slowly fell as he met his brother's continued glare.  
“Okay…”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Reiner and Porco stood beside each other on the dock as they waved their friends off, the other four kids waved to them from the port side of the ship, the two continued waving until their friends were out of sight. Porco watched as soon after everyone had left the dock, Reiner’s whole demeanour fell. The boy who usually radiated such a bright and cheery aura was quickly replaced with something much more dreary.  
“Okay, what happened?”

Reiner’s gaze shifted over to him briefly before the smaller boy stood and started to head back to the internment zone.  
“What do you mean?”

Porco was quick to catch up with the other boy, giving him a hard glare, to which the other boy only gave back a questioning raised eyebrow.  
“You disappeared during the parade, and since you came back you've been acting as if someone pissed in your dinner”  
“You shouldn’t say pissed”  
“Don't ignore the problem! Where were you? What happened?”

Reiner simply kept walking, he was being more stupidly irritating than normal, Porco charged in front of Reiner blocking him from continuing forward. Reiner glared up at him and blew steam out from between his teeth.  
“Is that supposed to be intimidating? You look like a teddy bear that learnt a cool new trick. What happened?”  
“Nothing Porco, please just drop it”  
“What, are you upset you didn't get to go on the mission? You’re upset that you don't get to go run off as well?!”  
“NO!”

Porco froze. He looked down at Reiner’s face, tears were gathering in his eyes and his breath was catching in his chest. How dare he cry over this, why can't he just come out and say he didn't want to be stuck here with him?  
“Just say it!”  
“No! I can’t tell you, I- if they find out I’ll-”

Reiner couldn't finish his sentence, not that it seemed like he was going to, Commander Magath came up to them, his face twisting in shock as he saw Reiner crying in front of Porco. The two kids looked absolutely miserable as they turned towards their commander.  
“Snap out it Braun, you're the armoured titan, carry yourself with dignity for crying out loud!”

Reiner shook his head and straightened up so quickly Porco got dizzy just watching him. As Reiner wiped his eyes on his sleeve quietly letting out a slow breath to control his breathing, Magath let out his own sigh and patted both boys on the head.  
“You two should head home it’s been a long day, and curfew is only coming closer”

The two nodded, taking off for the large gate that surrounded their sad little town. Porco didn't know what happened to Reiner today, was he still upset about his broken arm? There's no way he would be so scared to talk about that though.

Porco shook his head to empty it, Reiner wasn't his problem, if it was important, he’d find out eventually. His biggest worry right now was his Brother being shipped off to Paradis for who knows how long. Before he can think too deep into it though Reiner spoke up beside him.  
“I hope the others will be okay.”

Porco couldn't agree more.


	2. Chappy two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you get a little trauma, as a treat.

Porco woke up to the sound of cutlery clanking around in the kitchen, the sun was hardly even past the horizon there was no reason for everyone to be awake. Porco sat up slowly, letting his body catch up with his head, looking across the room to Marcel’s empty bed left a sharp stab through his heart, he couldn't help but feel something was wrong. 

When Porco put his feet down and got out of bed he was met with the awful sensation of wetness seeping into his socks. Looking down at the puddle he was standing in, he bit his tongue and looked up as water dripped directly into his eye. It must have rained last night. 

Porco moved to make his way to the kitchen, he walked up to the rug in the hallway and did a little hop onto the patchy fabric. Once he landed he heard a sharp snort from the kitchen.

Porco’s head snapped up in terror, he would recognize that annoying bratty snort anywhere! And of course, there he was Reiner Braun standing in his kitchen as if he was doing nothing wrong, holding a basket of blueberries. The blonde took a berry from the basket and tossed it in his mouth.  
“You always do that little hop in the morning?”

Porco could feel heat flood his face and chest at the smug smile Reiner was giving him.  
“SHUT UP! Why are you in my house?”  
“Your mom let me in, I mean, I don’t exactly want to be home right now anyways.”  
“Does this have something to do with yesterday?”

Reiner hummed not understanding what Porco asked, but then a sorrowful look crossed the other boys and he looked down in shame.  
“No actually, I fought with my mom last night. I just need some space.”  
Porco looked at the sorrowfully honest look on Reiner's face and sighed quietly as he moved to sit beside him at the kitchen table.

After a long pause, he leaned over the smaller boy and took a handful of berries from the basket.  
“We can hang out here for today. I mean, if you want”  
He looked over at Reiner for confirmation, the blond was giving him such a warm smile it felt like the room even warmed slightly.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
It had started to rain again. Reiner and Porco were running around the small house putting bowls and buckets under every drip they could find. There was practically a river running through the house, Porco was going to need to tell his parents the roof will need to be fixed, that won't go over well.

Porco looked up at Reiner who was trying to scoop water out of the house through the window. Porco ran over to start helping him scoop out the water, the less possible water damage the better. Everything was progressing well until Reiner let out a quiet “oh no.”

He watched as Reiner ran over to an overflowing bucket, the poor boy had to support the weight of the sloshing bucket against his chest as he ran back to the window, almost slipping as he poured out the water before booking it back to return the bucket. 

The two children froze as a strong wind passed through, the light fixtures swayed, Reiner grabbed Porco's hand and they both ran into Porco’s parent's room. They huddled on the bed together and pulled the duvet over themselves as the violent storm continued.

A loud crash sounded from the front of the house, and not too long after the power cut out. The two boys were left in the dark as the wind howled and the rain pounded against the window. Porco pressed his face into Reiner's shoulder and pulled the blanket tighter around them.

Porco blinked awake the next morning cuddled up to Reiner, they had been moved to Porcos room at some point, probably when Porco’s parents got home. Porco sat up and looked down at Reiner, the boy was asleep ramrod straight with his arms up behind his head. 

Porco took a moment to watch Reiner sleeping, there was no way that position was comfortable. He poked Reiner’s stomach to which the boy squirmed and curled onto his side. Porco sighed and got out of bed, looking down at his feet he groaned realizing that the floor had a small layer of water across the ground. 

The young boy moved into the kitchen to see all the doors were open. The rug was hung on a tree branch outside, his parents were using the broom and mop to push the water out the doors. Porco looked up at the window that used to be over the kitchen sink, it wasn’t much of a window anymore, a large tree branch had gone through it.

“Pokk! Come help push out this flood.”  
Porco looked over at his father's words and nodded quietly running over to grab the broom from his mom, who as soon as her hands were free moved over to try and move the large tree branch from their kitchen.

It didn't take long for the commotion to attract Reiner, the slight twelve-year-old quickly made his way over to help Porco’s mother drag the branch from the window. The Galliards and Reiner worked quietly to clear the water and rescue what they could from the flood. It had not even been an hour when a group of Marlian officers came down the street driving in one of their fancy cars. 

A large intimidating man walked up to Porco's dad as Reiner and Porco dived behind his mom.  
“Bring out your valuables, to pay the restoration from the storm!”  
the man's hand was threateningly close to the gun strapped to his hip, Porco’s mom patted him on the shoulder and pushed him back towards the house.  
“Porco, please go get the good china”  
“But mom-”  
“Now Porco!”

Porco ran back inside to grab the delicately painted porcelain from the cabinet, along with a brass candlestick he made his way back out to the Marlian officers handing them the dish set. 

The group then moved on to the next house and Porco's mom turned to Reiner.   
“You should head home dear, Karina will be worried”

Reiner simply nodded and turned down the street, his head held low. Porco knew Reiner could feel it as well, something much worse than the storm that happened last night.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Pieck, Bertholdt and Annie stared up in horror, helplessly they watched their friend get eaten by the mindless titan that had been hiding under their campsite. Annie was the first to turn and run back away for the rising sun, back towards the safety of night when the titans couldn't move. She could hear the other two following her but it didn’t matter, Marcel was dead. 

Annie kept running, she ran till it hurt to breathe and her knees gave way, she landed on her side and let out a violent sob and the other two dropped beside her. Bert crawled between them and reached over to drag the two girls into his lap, he rubbed their shoulders trying to comfort them.

“It's gonna be okay”  
“NO! MARCEL IS DEAD! HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?!”  
“What did you want me to say?!”  
“WE HAVE TO GO BACK! WE NEED TO GO BACK!”

Pieck sobbed as she listened her friends scream at each other arguing on whether to go back or not, they couldn’t go back.  
“We can’t go back! If we gave up now, then Marcel died for nothing!”

She curled up and sobbed, holding her stomach tightly as the others watched her silently.  
“We- we need to do this, if we come back down one, with nothing to show for it, they’ll replace us!”

The other two nodded and huddled with Peick to start formulating a new plan.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Reiner was clearing the fallen sticks and branches from the roof of his house with his uncle, their house had not been in as bad a shape as the Galliard’s house, simply because Reiners uncle had recently fixed the roof. Though any past attempt to patch the roof was useless now as maybe half the shingles had been torn off, Reiner was collecting as many as he could while his uncle nailed as many as possible back down.

Reiner quietly handed them to his uncle as needed, while absently throwing sticks into the yard between each tile. He could tell his uncle was getting annoyed at him tossing around sticks, but he couldn't help it, he was bored!   
“Reiner!”

Reiner groaned loudly and flopped down onto his back as his uncle sat up to give him a hard stare.  
“Reiner you’re almost thirteen-”  
“I just turned twelve! Like fifteen days ago I turned twelve!”  
“That doesn't mean you can still act like a child, you’ll be a man soon you need to take things seriously.”

Reiner simply rolled onto his stomach and began to bear crawl across the roof, he could hear his uncle give an annoyed huff at being ignored but Reiner didn't care. In his mind, he was back on the battlefield winning the war! It had been two months since his last draft, and sure the Paradis mission was important, but it wasn’t his mission! 

Reiner crawled across to the other side of the roof and looked down at his three-year-old cousin sitting in the mud, she seemed to be studying her dirty hands intensely before starting to slather the mud across her little yellow polka-dot dress, Reiner smirked deviously. Target acquired.

Scrambling backward he started to look for a good weapon, he found a long skinny twig and nodded to himself in approval, he crawled down the drain pipe and began to sneak around the tall tree that now stood between him and Gabi.

Reiner crouched low twig in hand, he had to wait for the perfect opportunity- There! As Gabi began to stand up on her little stubby legs Reiner charged, he began poking her in the tummy and sides making the small girl laugh loudly falling back on her butt as Reiner continued his assault. 

“NO REINER STOP!”  
Reiner chuckled despite the girls yelling there will be no end to this torture! He threw the twig and pounced on her, wrapping his arms around her and he began to squeeze her sides making her squeal.  
“Never! I never give up!”

Gabi kicked her legs wildly as the two rolled around in the mud. Eventually, the toddler broke free and made a wobbly run up into the house, Reiner jumped up and followed her inside. Catching her in the doorway to the kitchen he grabbed her again yelling out a little war cry as he wrapped around her. 

“Dear me, you two are absolutely filthy”  
Reiner looked up from his attack at his aunt's words, he smiled up at the dark-haired woman cheekily and began trying to dust off his once blue dress shirt. He only managed to rub the dirt in more, he heard her sigh as she walked over and took Gabi’s hand before heading to the bathroom.  
“Come on you two let's get cleaned up.” 

Reiner pulled his stool out from under the sink as his aunt started to run the bath for Gabi, he heard his aunt chuckle and he felt heat rise to his cheeks as he turned to her.  
“You still need your stool, Reiner?”  
“NO! I got it for Gabi, you know because she's little…”  
“Mhm, sure and how tall are you, Reiner?”

Reiner blanked, he didn't measure himself, what kind of question was that?! He had to say something fast. The grin on his aunt's face only made the embarrassment worse!  
“Fifteen meters!”

Reiner and his aunt looked at each other for a solid few minutes, until the woman started laughing and turned off the bathwater and started getting Gabi ready for her bath.   
“Well then, mister fifteen-meter titan, you may be tall, but can you wash your hands?”

Reiner looked up at the challenge his aunt just gave him, and he ran back towards his stool but before he could grab it his aunt called out to him.  
“Without the stool?”  
Reiner slowly put his stool back down and walked over to the sink. The boy's chin just cleared the lip of the sink, he could feel his aunt watching him as Gabi splashed around in the bath.

Reiner pushed up onto his tiptoes and reached over to turn on the tap. He ended up needing to bend his arms above him and into the sink to clear the lip, but he got the soap and began to scrub his hands together awkwardly.

He rinsed his hands and turned off the tap, he whipped around and began drying his hand on the towel hung over the door. As soon as his hands were dry he turned to his aunt proudly showing her how clean his hands were.  
“Ha! See I can do it!”  
“Well, you sure showed me.”

Reiner nodded and made his way towards his room to change his shirt. He tossed the muddy dress shirt into a corner and crouched in front of his dresser, he started pulling out his clothes and throwing them around so he could get a good look at everything.   
“Reiner !”  
“COMING MOM!”

He grabbed a light green button-down and tugged it on as he ran towards the kitchen where his mom was pulling a stone dish out of the oven and placed it on the counter.  
“Set the table will you dear?”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Three young kids looked up in terror as the colossal titan loomed over the district of Shiganshina the air seemed to go still in the moments it took before the gate was kicked and debris flew into the city. Chaos broke loose as people ran through the streets in panic for many of them, running was futile.

Armin watched as Eren and Mikasa ran toward the danger as always, the blonde boy could only quietly watch them leave him behind. Armin took a deep breath and turned towards the inner gates taking off as fast as possible.  
“I gotta find Hannes!”

Pieck crawled over the buildings Bertholdt and Annie safely on her back as more and more pure titans flooded the city.  
“You poor things…”  
Pieck followed Annie’s line of sight to two children about their age struggling to lift a wooden beam off a woman. Pieck moved to go closer but froze as one of those flying devils landed beside the two kids.

Pieck turned away from the scene heading towards the other gate. That was until she heard a distraught scream coming from behind her, she turned to see the woman who was trapped struggling in the grip of a pure titan quickly headed towards its gaping maw.  
“Are we monsters?”

The two girls looked over to Bertholdt's shocked and distressed face, neither of them could answer that question. Pieck simply turned and continued to move forward, to continue their mission.

Pieck and Bert watched from the roof’s as Annie crashed through the inner gate using her hardening ability. Bert looked over the chaos they had wrought and watched the few boats chugging along the river towards the inner walls.  
“There will be quite a few refugees, we’ll fit right in”  
“Yeah…”   
Bert’s response was short and sour, he couldn't think too hard on continuing their mission, his head was too busy replaying the screams that still filled the city, Pieck simply moved on to retrieve Annie and keep pushing forward.


	3. Chappy three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this one's short cuz the next one's gonna be super long.  
> you get a little plot, as a treat.
> 
> and some significant trauma.

Porco wrapped his blanket tighter around himself, it had been four months since Marcel and the others had left, but his current torture was that it had started snowing almost every day for the past week! Well, the good news is he can spend a bit longer bundled up- or he should have! 

Reiner let out a very intimidating roar and he threw himself onto Porco’s bed and stole the pillow from under Porco’s head. Porco had played this song and dance before, he knew what was coming. Porco raised his arms trying to protect his face as Reiner began to slam the pillow down onto him.

“Come on wake up! WAKE UP PORCO!”  
Porco turned over and kicked Reiner right between the ribs, the Blonde boy went flying over the bed and landed on the chest at the end of Porco’s bed with a solid THUNK. Porco threw the covers off of himself and stomped over to Reiner who was fully dressed and ready to go for the day.

“Why are you in my room?!”  
“Your mom let me in, we got work!”  
Porco rolled his eyes and started to get on his uniform. That was until he heard Reiner right himself, he turned back to the other boy and felt pure RAGE boil inside him. He stomped right up to Reiner and looked him in the eyes, they were the same height, he didn't have to look down anymore. 

“How dare you…”  
“What did I do?”  
“We’re the same height, how! I swear you were still like a baby yesterday!”  
Reiner smirked and straightened as far as he could with his hands on his hips.  
“Yeah, my mom had to fix my pant length three times this month!”

Porco rolled his eyes and went back to getting dressed. He could hear Reiner rummaging in his stuff behind him but he bit his tongue and continued getting dressed, when he finally finished and turned back to the other boy, Reiner had the top half of his body submerged in the wood chest, one leg up in the air to balance himself, perfect.

Porco grabbed the suspended leg and pushed the older boy all the way into his chest. Looking down at Reiner now covered in clothes and spare sheets at the bottom of the chest made Porco’s heart hammer just a little bit harder. Reiner pulled himself up and smiled at Porco, a shirt hanging off his head.  
“Come on dumb ass lets go”  
“You shouldn’t say dumb ass”

They walked along the cobblestone street side by side, now that Porco had noticed it he couldn't ignore that Reiner had been growing absurdly fast, if Reiner had matched his height in only four months, he feared what terror the future might bring. He was pulled from his dread by Reiner's inquisitive look, had he been talking to him? Porco felt a blush of embarrassment rise to his cheeks.

“I'm sorry?”  
“The generals, they keep talking about you, they say you seem to show up later every day… so I’m gonna come wake you up every day now, so we're both on time.”  
The heat in Porco’s face only heightened at Reiner’s words. He looked down in shame, he had been showing up late but he didn’t think they would notice him.  
“Oh”

Reiner watched him for a few minutes before continuing his walk to work. Porco took a few seconds to regain himself before sprinting to catch up with Reiner.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Pieck watched as Bertholdt pat Annie’s burning forehead with a cold wet rag, she didn’t know what bugs these islanders had but whatever they were, they were hitting Annie like a load of bricks.

Bert squeezed the now warm water out of the cloth and dipped it back into the basin. Pieck took a calming breath as Bert went back to patting down Annie’s face. Pieck looked up as she heard three pairs of feet running towards them, she looked up towards the commotion and, no way!

It was the two kids from Shiganshina and a small blonde boy. The bright-eyed brunette boy crouched beside her and Bert and began to feel Annie’s forehead.  
“Let me help, my dad’s a doctor”

Pieck scootched backward letting Bert handle the situation. The dark-haired girl crouched down beside her and Pieck took the time to take in the girl's features, she obviously wasn’t Eldian, at least not completely.  
“You’re Asian?”

The girl seemed taken aback at the comment and hid behind her scarf.  
“I am, I don’t think about it”  
“Oh, sorry”  
Pieck looked away from the girl awkwardly, she must have come across as so rude.

The brunette stood up and smiled at Bertholdt softly.  
“She’ll be ok, just needs some warm soup and water.”  
“Thank you, um, who are you?”  
“I’m Eren, Eren Jaeger”

Jaeger?! It's got to be some sort of coincidence, but as she watched the three kids run off to the next ‘patient’ she had a sinking feeling that it wasn't.   
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Porco and a group of other warrior cadets were lined up against a wall, a blonde boy named Colt Grice stood beside him as the other three cadets seemed to want to be anywhere else. Porco sighed as Commander Magath came back with Reiner in tow, Porco sighed in relief, he hated these other cadets and he hated standing against this stupid wall.

“Galliard”  
Porco raised his hand and smiled up at Commander Magath, the smile didn’t hold though, he looked up at the Commander who met his smile with a sad frown.  
“You and Braun have a job today”

Porco followed Reiner out to a yard, snow was falling hard around them and the two stopped in the middle of the yard facing a brick wall. Eventually, a group of six Eldian prisoners were led out to kneel against the back wall. 

“Oh” Porco muttered as he was handed his rifle, the Marlian soldiers loomed over them quietly, a threat to them if they didn’t follow through on their duty. Porco could see Reiner cocking his rifle beside him, Porco followed Reiners lead letting his gaze follow down the barrel of his gun to the sight of the prisoners ahead.

Some of the men were missing their fingers and teeth, one even seemed to be missing a tongue. Porco pushed the thought of the prisoner's torture and readied his gun almost synchronously with Reiner. Porco took a moment to wonder what Reiner was thinking, he glanced over at the older boy but there was nothing in the blonde’s eyes that hinted to any emotion.   
“Reiner?”

A part of Porco hoped Reiner would make some quip about this being for the greatness of Marley or whatever but Reiner just looked forward, Porco had to accept that whatever happened to Reiner during the parade four months ago had been substantial, the boy apparently had continuous fights with his mother and he hadn't spat his usual propaganda since.

Porco bit his tongue and looked forward as he heard Reiner take a breath beside him. With one more breath, he heard Reiner yell out.  
“Abfeuern!”  
And the two boys fired the ricochet blowing back in their faces as two of the six prisoners dropped.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Annie was woken abruptly in the middle of the night by a bang and a bright light, she turned towards the forest where the commotion had stemmed from. Annie looked over the trees looking for any hint that she heard what she thought she heard.

She pushed herself up, her vision going dark for a while and she took a moment to regain herself. Annie looked at Pieck and Bert who were still asleep and sighed quietly. She must be imagining it if the others hadn't woken, right?

She bit her lip and took one more look over the tree’s, nothing. Annie hunched over as a hacking cough came over her. Her chest burnt with the effort and her legs crumpled, she sat back on her cot and sighed the cough finally cut off and she could breathe for the next few minutes.

Annie startled when she felt a hand press against her arm, she followed the hand to Bert’s large concerned eyes. She had to look away from the boy's concerned gaze, she knew that her sickness was hurting him, but she didn't know how to fix it.  
“I’m okay”  
“No you’re not, something happened”

Annie lowered her head and let her bangs fall around her eyes to hide her face. She could hear Bert sigh and felt the cot shift as he got up and sat beside her. She looked over at him and he glanced towards her then away awkwardly.  
“I’m not Reiner, you don't have to baby me”

She felt Bert stiffen beside her, she had to bite her tongue to stop herself from laughing as Bert whipped around to face her.  
“I don’t baby Reiner”  
“Oh be realistic Bert we all do”

The tall boy looked away awkwardly at that and Annie huffed out a slight laugh before leaning against Bert and slowly drifting back to sleep.  
“Good night Bear-Turtle”  
“Bear-Turtle?”  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Porco didn't feel well enough to go home, instead, he pressed close to Reiner and the two walked back to the older boy's house. Reiner snuck Porco in through his bedroom window and handed him a pair of pyjamas for the night. After the two boys were dressed they climbed into Reiners bed and laid down facing each other.

“Don’t do that again.”  
Porco looked up into Reiner's eyes in confusion.  
“W-what?”  
“You hesitated, you can’t hesitate!”  
“Why do you even care?”

Porco had to take a breath when he noticed tears flooding Reiner’s eyes, the blonde grabbed Porco’s hand and gave his fingers a slight squeeze before letting out a shaky breath.  
“I don’t want you to be the one lined up on that wall”

Porco’s eyes widened and he could feel a tear running towards the tip of his nose, Porco had thought that Reiner spoke and acted the way he did, constantly sucking up to the Marlins because he didn't understand the situation they were all in. But in one sentence, one breath he had proven that that wasn’t quite true.

“Why- why do you care?”  
“I guess, maybe I don’t wanna get left behind”  
“If anything I’m the one always getting left behind…”

Reiner shuffled closer to Porco on the twin size mattress so their noses were inches from each other. Porco looked up into Reiner's eyes, the other boy looked back at him and smiled. Both boys' eyes were red-rimmed and puffy from crying.  
“I won't ever leave you behind, okay?”

Porco could feel more tears spring to his eyes and he scooted that little bit closer to Reiner to wrap his arms around the other boy. As soon as they pressed together they both started to heave with sobs and sniffles until they fell asleep, Porco’s shaky “okay” was breathed into Reiner's ear.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Annie was recovering well, and things seemed to be settling down around the refugee camp, that was until some Military Police officers had stomped up onto a platform to shout over the crowd.   
“An order from the interior!-” 

Pieck could feel the blood in her face drain as the officer went over this order, this horrible instruction to have the adult refugees kicked to the destroyed wall, to ‘reclaim’ the land.

“They're culling them”  
She turned to Bertholdt who looked just as shocked as she felt.  
“W-what?”  
“Winter’s coming, there's a lot of sickness and too many mouths to feed, so they're gonna kill them…” 

Pieck took a moment to think over Bert’s words, she knew he was right, it made sense, she also knew that the reason everyone was getting sick was probably the same reason Annie had gotten sick. The people of the walls didn’t have the same illnesses they had in Marley, and their bodies didn’t know how to fight it.

Pieck’s quiet musing was cut off by the sound of sniffling nearby, she turned around and saw the blonde boy from before who was with Eren, he was clinging to the tunic of an elderly man who was quietly patting the boys head in return.

Pieck quietly stood and moved away from the other two warriors and walked up to the blonde and the older man.  
“Armin right?”  
The boy turned slightly towards her and she could already feel the anxiety radiating off Bertholdt behind her.  
“Hey, we made it this far yeah? We just gotta keep going forward”  
The boy wiped his eyes clear and gave her a watery smile.  
“yeah!”

Pieck smiled and made her way back to Bertholdt and Annie with a bright smile.


	4. Chappy four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chicky nuggies with upsetti spaghetti this chappy

It’s now been two years since Marcel and the others left, Reiner had kept his promise of being Porco’s alarm clock, in fact, he and Reiner would sleepover at each other's houses every other night, and Porco would quietly sneak into the warrior's tent whenever he and Reiner were drafted. 

Porco was currently crouched in the bottom of a trench trying to tie his shoelaces just right, there had been a break-in fire and being stuck at the bottom of a hole, waiting for any sign of the battle to continue. Especially since he was stuck with the bratty ten-year-old that was Colt Grice.

“-and then I hit it really hard with the butt of my gun!”  
“Hey kid”  
Porco didn’t even try to figure out what Colt was talking about.  
“Remind me again how you were the one to get through warrior training?”  
“I'm not a kid, I'm only two years younger than you!”  
“Exactly you’re a baby go, go sit in your baby corner!”

Colt frowned and shuffled backwards on his rump till his back was up against the far end of the trench. Porco sighed and finished tying his boots, Colt just went back to yammering on about something to do with a dog and a little girl. Or he had been until shots started firing off in the distance.

Porco shrugged his gun off his shoulder and started to creep up the ladder. He Laid his gun out in front of him and began to return fire into the enemies direction, out of the corner of his eye he could see Colt rise to the ladder beside him.  
“I hate trench work!”

Porco ducked back to the ground and began to dig in their supplies for more magazines, as his search took longer and longer he could feel his heart sink.  
“We’re out!”  
“WHAT?!”

Colt whipped back towards him, the younger boy looked terrified as Porco climbed back up his ladder and surveyed the mud that expanded in all directions, bullets flying back and forth above him. Porco bit his lip as he finally spotted what he needed. A corpse was laid not too far from them, the white uniform stained red. Porco turned back to Colt and did his best to impersonate Commander Magath’s hard glare.  
“Cover me.”

He didn’t take the time to watch the other nod as he crawled out of their glorified dirt hole and began to crawl towards the body. He was halfway there when a bullet hit the dirt right by his face, he had to turn his head slightly to avoid the explosion of dirt from hitting his eyes and continued to push forward. 

Porco only stopped when the crown of his head hit something squishy and warm. Porco sucked his teeth and threw an arm over the still bleeding corpse, feeling for the bag of ammo that all soldiers carried on their hip.  
“Head down Porco, just keep your head down”

He could feel the dirt around him being stirred up by falling bullets he bit down hard on his tongue, feeling blood flood his mouth. He finally unclipped the ammo bag and flipped back towards Colt. He tried to pick up his pace as the bullets came faster and heavier.

Porco heard loud thumps coming from behind him, a sound he would recognize anywhere now. Knowing his friend was right behind him he took the chance to push himself up and dash towards the trench. Just as Porco dived towards Colt’s outstretched hand, ready to pull him back into the hole, Porco felt a sharp pain rip through his right leg.

Porco landed hard on top of Colt, the two kids felt the world shake around them as the majority of Reiner’s came down over their trench, bullets bounced off Reiner’s armour as the titan let out a low growl before looking down at the two blood and mud-covered cadet’s.

Porco held onto his injured leg as Colt shoved cloth onto the open wound to try and stop the bleeding. Reiner let out a deep-chested snarl as he took in the sight of Porco’s injured leg, the snarl quickly became a roar as he charged off towards the enemy fire, shoving his face into the enemy trenches and grabbing as many as possible.

Porco shoved himself up against the wall and turned to Colt.  
“I think the bullet is still in me, I'm gonna need your help.”  
The younger boy nodded vigorously and grabbed what meagre medical supplies they had. Porco had already tied the cloth Colt had been using to stop the bleeding around his upper thigh and using as sturdy a stick he could find he began to tighten the cloth as a makeshift tourniquet. 

“Okay Colt you gotta get your hands in there and pull out the shrapnel”  
“HUH?! You want me to finger your bullet wound!”  
“Don't say that! -darn I'm starting to sound like Reiner. Look I don't want Lead Poisoning so just do it.”  
Colt nodded, the kid was on the verge of tears, Porco bit down on the leather strap of the ammo bag he retrieved, as Colt stuck his middle and forefingers into the open wound to search for the bullet.

Porco turned his head away from the younger boy and bit down harder on the leather. He tried to focus on Reiner in the distance but that sight wasn't much better. Reiner’s titan had blood running down its jaw from chewing on those unlucky enough to get in his path, currently, the armoured titan was holding onto a large military tank as if it were a small toy.

Reiner’s roar was ear-splitting as the tank went off, and hit the titan in the chest, for a moment Porco feared that the tank had actually hurt Reiner, but as Reiner crushed the tank against the ground and stood back up Porco could see that the titan's chest plates were only slightly shattered.

“Done!”  
Porco finally breathed as Colt sat back holding the bullet between his fingers. Porco looked around for what he needed next and moved to continue treating his wound. Poco crawled over to the half-empty whisky bottle Zeke had been drinking.

“Won't Zeke be angry if you take that?”  
“Don’t really care right now”  
Porco gripped the neck of the bottle and poured it over his wound, biting back a shout as he poured the entirety of the bottle onto his leg.  
“Ok think you can bandage my leg?”

Colt nodded and began to wrap up Porco’s leg. A crash sounded above them as Reiners titan came down over them, the young teen pulled himself from his titan's nape and slid down into the trench with them.

Reiner ran over to them and began checking the tightness of Porco’s bandages.  
“Reiner?”  
“Don’t ever do something like that again!”  
“We had no ammo! What was I supposed to do?!”  
“Not charge out into no man's land like some idiot!”  
“What makes you think that you can boss me around?!”  
“I’m older than you!”  
“By two years, that's nothing!”

Porco could see Colt glare at him from the corner of his eyes. Porco couldn't care less about the younger cadet right now though, he was too busy chewing out Reiner, or he would be if Colt hadn't interrupted them with his best baby voice.  
“Mom, Dad. Why are you fighting?”

Pocro couldn't keep it together, he keeled over laughing, and Colt let out a sigh as Reiner looked at them both in disappointment.   
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Pieck watched as Bert struggled to uproot a stump that had been situated in the middle of the field, the farmer had been threatening to boot Bert for days now, yelling in the poor boy’s face that he had been hired as muscle for heavy-duty jobs. 

Pieck and Annie were on their knees in the dirt trying to help further the process by digging out the roots of the tree. Bert grunted as he shoved his whole weight into the wooden post he was using to push up the stump. He pushed harder and harder till a sickening loud crack split the air and the wooden post broke in half.

Bert fell into the hole left by the half uprooted stump and began to sob softly as he looked up at the sky.  
“I can’t- I can’t”

Pieck huffed and reached into the hole to grab Bert by his ear, she dragged him back out of the hole and sat him down in front of the broken post.  
“Look at you! Crying in the dirt like a child! Aren’t you a warrior, aren’t you supposed to be the god of destruction!? You don’t give up! You can’t give up! Keep pushing damn it!”

Bert let out a soft sniffle before giving her a nod and went back to pushing up against the tree barehanded. Annie stood and watched as Bert continued to push against the stump. 

“There's an army sign up”  
Pieck looked over at Annie who just continued to watch Bert struggle.  
“Huh?”  
“We can sign up for the army, if we can get into the Military Police then we can get into the interior.”

Pieck looked at Annie trying to comprehend what Annie had just suggested.  
“That would take a while”  
“Three more years”

The two girls were pulled from their conversation as a loud ripping sound filled the clearing, the tree stump fell over and began to roll down the hill. Bert raised his arms in victory.  
“YEAH!”

The stump kept rolling though, all the way down the hill into a line of field workers, a familiar small blonde was blown over by the falling stump. Bert immediately ducked down as heads turned towards them.  
“Hide me”

The thirteen-year-old hid behind the two small girls as another girl began stomping up the hill towards them.   
“What's your problem?! My friend could have gotten hurt!”

Pieck watched as Armin and Eren ran after Mikasa, meeting with the other trio at the top of the hill.  
“What was going through your head?! You could have killed him!”  
“We were talking about joining the army”

Pieck watched Eren’s face brighten up at Annie’s honest words. Eren pushed past his friends to get right in Annie’s face, Pieck could see the slight downturn of the girl's lips, a sign the Pieck knew meant the blonde girl was uncomfortable.

“You guys are joining the army! We are two!”  
“We were only talking about it”  
At that Annie turned around and walked away from the over-excited boy, leaving her two friends to deal with the trio that they just couldn’t seem to get rid of. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Porco sat on the hard seat of the train, his injured leg up across the seats beside him, across the aisle Reiner was laid across his lot of seats asleep, the titan scars still hadn’t healed. 

Porco looked down at his leg and poked at his bandages hissing quietly, the train car door hissed open and Porcos hands flew away from his legs as if he were burnt as Zeke walked in with Colt not far behind.

Porco sat up straighter as Zeke looked between both fully occupied halves of the car and sighed before just sitting on the floor, much to the shock of Colt who nervously sat down beside Zeke on the ground.

Everyone sat quietly, just soaking in the fact that they were all headed home no matter their wounds or fatigue. It was quite calming or it was until Reiner started to snore loudly while waving his arms out in front of him. Zeke snorted at the sight and rolled his eyes.  
“You fighting somethin’ Reiner?”

Reiner’s eyebrows drew together and he continued to wave his arms around.  
“Take that! And that!”  
Porco had to cover his mouth to stop him from laughing.  
“Holy shit, he is!”

Zeke crawled closer to the young teen and tapped him on the forehead making him squirm more violently.  
“Get em’ buddy get em’! They're getting away!”  
Reiner kicked out and turned over to face the wall as the other three occupants of the car tried to hold themselves together. 

That was until a few minutes later Reiner started to shake with sobs as he continued to try and kick the wall of the train car.  
“Bastard! Bastard! Bastard…”

The others froze and watched as Reiner finally stopped kicking out and began to completely mellow out his breathing slowed and the only remainder of the incident were the tears on Reiner's face.

Porco pulled Zeke back onto his ass by his belt and sighed before moving to lay down himself.  
“Everything sucks…”  
Zeke sighed and reached up behind him and scratched Porco’s scalp absently. 

They all looked up as Commander Magath walked into the car, the man sighed at the sight of the two blondes sitting on the ground. Magath walked over to Reiner scooping up the now six-foot teenager into his arms with ease, much to everyone's shock and simply sat down letting Reiner rest in his lap. 

Reiner curled into the man's chest and began to snore again as Magath gave his head a few pats.  
“I'm going to need to know what happened out there Galliard.”  
Porco shuffled in his jacket pocket trying to think of what to say, obviously the truth would be the best option but just saying ‘we ran out of ammo’ seemed so lacklustre.

So Porco sat there quietly looking at his legs until Colt finally grew the courage to tell the story.  
“Sir, we were under fire when we ran out of ammunition. Porco went out into the field to retrieve ammo and got hit on his way back… sir.”

Magath nodded and sighed, he gave Reiner a pat on the back and looked down on the two younger boys.  
“If it weren't for Braun you both would probably look like swiss cheese, you gave away your positions when you ran out like that. I trust you have learnt from your mistake?”

Porco nodded and squeezed his healthy leg keeping his head down as the train bumped along on the tracks. He couldn't help but feel like a sinking pit was growing between him and Reiner as if the small determined child he knew didn't exist anymore. 

Porco glanced over at the sleeping blonde, was he not still determined? Annoying? He was definitely still a big cry baby. Porco shook his head to clear it, he would need to talk to Reiner about it later.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Peick stood in line with all the other new cadets waiting as Commander Shadies took the time to scream in everyone's face and humiliate them personally. She kept her eyes forward as the man walked straight past her giving her a judging glare. 

She wasn't the only one he had walked past, he had jumped the other warriors as well as the shiganshina trio- well almost.  
“ARMIN ARLERT FROM SHIGANSHINA DISTRICT SIR!”  
She flinched slightly as Armin's voice cracked and wavered in fear. She felt bad for the boy, he looked like he was going to piss himself. 

But at the end of the day he wasn't the one eating a potato in formation, Peick stood on the deck of the mess hall watching the poor girl do lap’s and sighed softly as some others joined her.

As Connie and Eren began to talk about the potato girl and the few people leaving to return to the fields she glanced back into the mess hall to watch as a small blonde girl grabbed a roll of bread and stuffed it in her pocket. Peick moved to turn towards the girl, fully prepared to figure out what she was up to when a hand grabbed on to her arm.

Pieck turned back towards Eren who had a bored look on his face as if he hadn't been the center of attention at dinner.   
“I was just suggesting that you and Mikasa should cut your hair, it could get caught in the gear once we get flying around.”

Pieck could see Mikasa behind Eren, looking over her hair length with a concentrated face.  
“Yeah, maybe you’re right Eren…”

Eren was totally right! All the girls were cutting or tying up their hair in different ways, and Pieck hadn't even thought to touch her hair before! She snuck across the training grounds to the boy’s dorm and spotted an open window.  
“Yes! Bert, it's good you’re predictable.”

Pieck slunk in through the window much to the horror of one Connie Springer who began to shriek at the sight of the intruder. Pieck ignored the smaller boy, instead, she turned to Bertholdt who sat on the cot beside Connie watching her with a slightly amused smirk. 

“Bertholdt! Sweet Bertholdt, could you cut my hair for me?”  
“Huh? Why would you want me cutting your hair?”  
“Well you cut your own hair”  
“Well I’m sure you wouldn’t want my hair cut”  
“Bert come on!”

The tall boy looked down on her and sighed slumping forward and patting the spot in front of him grabbing his scissors. Pieck sat down in front of him excitedly, she’d never got her hair cut before! She was so excited, or she would have been until Bert took a comb to her hair.

“OW! BERT!”  
“Not my fault you got a rat’s nest back here! Just endure it!”  
She huffed and suffered through the pain. She could swear she lost more hair than she thought she could actually have on her head before Bert actually started to cut it. 

Pieck watched as her hair fell around her, the ends curled against her cheek and she could feel the air hit the nape of her neck. She smiled when Bert finally stood and moved away from her. She shot him a mock glare.  
“We better not be twins now!”

Bert rolled his eyes and handed her a small mirror with a wooden frame, as she turned it towards herself she had to take a moment as she almost couldn't recognize herself. 

Her hair still fell messily over her face but it was cut right below her nose, the dark curls wrapped around her face following her jawline while being at its shortest point at the nape of her neck. 

Pieck reached up and had to poke at how curly her hair was now that all the extra weight was off of it.  
“If it’s bad it will grow back and someone else can cut it...”  
“It's perfect Bertholdt, thank you!”

She gave him a tight hug before running out of the window, she couldn't wait to show off her new cut in front of Annie.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Porco sat at the little desk in Reiner’s room, Reiner was still asleep in his bed, the boy had grown so much in the last few years, that his feet stuck out over the frame of his bed, it made quite the sight honestly. 

Porco sighed and took a bite out of his sandwich as he went back to writing. That was until he heard shifting from the bed, he could feel Reiner’s eyes on him but was quick to push back into his writing.

Reiner watched the setting sun bouncing off of Porco’s hair from the window across the room, the boy was writing on a piece of paper, Reiner let his gaze travel down to the wrap-around Porco’s thigh. Reiner studied the medical work for a few minutes before deciding it was good enough and looked back up to Porco’s face.

He was quietly watching Porco work when the younger boy started to talk.  
“You shouldn't have done that”  
“Done what?”  
“Run out there to try to protect me.”  
“You weren’t the only one out there…”  
“You don’t even sound like you’re trying to deny it!”

Reiner snorted and looked away from him, sitting up slowly and crossing his legs.  
“If you don’t like me I guess I'll go hang out with my cool friends”  
“Like Zeke? He's like 10 years older than us!”  
“Whatever you're jealous, I can tell.”

Porco looked down at his paper before looking back up at Reiner.  
“Oi, Reiner, I was talking to Colt about why he joined the warrior program, his family was involved in the Eldian restorationists”  
“Yeah?”  
“Yeah, you were born right before then yeah?”  
“Maybe this is something we shouldn't be talking about?”

Porco looked over at Reiner’s worried face and stood up to limp towards the bed.  
“You were dreaming”  
Reiner grabbed a glass of water from the bedside table and took a sip.  
“Was I?”  
“You were yelling a kicking, it was like you were fighting someone”

Reiner stared into nothing for a while, he took another sip of water before putting his cup down.  
“Sometimes, I go into the city to watch them, feel like I have some connection to them I guess. But I- I saw him hit him and…”  
“Reiner, who are you talking about?”

Reiner smiled at Porco softly and stood up.   
“Did you need something to eat?”  
“Reiner…”  
“Rice pudding? Caesar salad?”

Reiner walked over to his closet and began changing his shirt.  
“Reiner, what have you been doing?”  
Reiner slammed down on his closet before sadly looking over at Porco.  
“It’s a family problem Pokk… don’t get involved”  
“Are you and your mom still fighting?”  
“No, Porco, please... It's okay.”

Porco slowly walked over to Reiner and hugged him from behind.  
“We’re ok, you’re a warrior of the great country Marley-”  
“Great countries don't send four young kids off to do their bidding”

Porco nodded against Reiner’s back and bit his lip to hold back tears. Porco wrapped his arms around Reiner’s neck and hoisted up his legs stiffly and pressed into Reiner’s neck.  
“Rice pudding sounds good…”   
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Pieck stood with the rest of the 104 as Eren flipped over in his harness and smashed into the ground, Pieck was sure for a moment she heard his skull crack as he hit the ground.  
“Ow…”

Beside her Pieck could hear Bertholdt trying not to laugh, his laugh was cut off though as both girls shoved an elbow into either of his ribs, Bert had to try to subtly hold onto both his sides, trying not to throw up.

“Damn you two are at the perfect height to just completely fuck with me huh?”   
Both girls pressed onto either side of the boy as Shadies screamed at Eren, Pieck almost fell over as a third girl rammed into Bert’s back and almost knocked them over.

Bert looked over his shoulder at Mikasa who seemed distressed at the sight in front of them.  
“He won’t make it will he?”  
“It’s Eren, the world could end and I don't think he would waver.”  
Annie turned around and tugged on Mikasa’s sleeve.  
“Come on let's go find Armin, we’ll need a plan when he goes manic later”

The two girls made their way away from them as a small blonde girl came over looking slightly peeved. Pieck recognized her, she was the girl who stole bread last night. She made her way over to them and glared up at Bert, the poor girl was more than a foot below Bert only coming up the boy’s hip. The lack of height didn’t make her any less intimidating.

Pieck could see the shiver run through Bert as he looked down at the girl.  
“You shouldn't laugh at someone trying their best!”  
“O-oh Eren’s a friend of mine, he plans further than he can throw.”  
The girl seemed to soften a bit at that and nodded.  
“Well im His- Krista! Krista Lenz!”

The girl reached out to shake Bert’s hand, the sweaty boy smiled and took her hand.  
“Bertholdt and this is Pieck.”

Later that night Pieck snuck into the boy’s dorm again, eliciting a short scream from Connie that drew everyone's attention. Jean looked over at them and huffed loudly.  
“Bert if your sister is gonna sneak in here every night, you gotta warn us!”  
“I didn’t know she was gonna- uh sister…?”

Pieck pushed Bert down onto the bed and hopped to the floor.  
“Oh hush, I’m here to talk to Eren before he falls into a depression.”  
Pieck walked into the corner Eren and Armin were hiding in, Bert trailing after her slowly.

As the four talked over the physics of the ODM gear, and by the four I mean Armin and Bert talked while Eren and Pieck pretended to listen. The four eventually fell asleep books spread across the bunk the four curled up together on as the night dragged on.


	5. Chappy five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to make this one longer but so much happened I just ended up making this one shorter and the next chapter longer.

Porco walked quietly beside Reiner the older teen had been distant the past few weeks, but today he had seemed a bit more like himself this morning though. Porco had a sneaking suspicion that that had to do with the fact that today was November 11th, Porco’s birthday.

Reiner had once again excitedly broken into Porco’s room with his mother's permission apparently. Porco hadn’t truly celebrated his birthday since Marcel and the other’s left. As such he hadn’t really thought about his birthday, he had been upset about being woken on his day off though.

Reiner had dragged him from his bed and out to the streets of Marley. The two teens walked down the street eating strawberries they had stolen from someone's garden, Porco never thought much about Reiner’s break down those months ago, as the two soon realized they had a bigger problem. Porco’s leg still wasn’t healing right, he limped when he walked, even though the limp was getting less noticeable the pain Porco felt every time he laid down or tried to balance on that leg was not. 

Porco could tell that Reiner was deliberately slowing his gait to keep pace with him. The two boys pretended not to notice their awkward gait and continued on their path, enjoying their day off. Porco turned down the main street towards the market, Reiner followed with an easy smile on his face.

They bought some sandwiches from some man's cart and they laughed together happily as the sun began to slowly set. They were running down the street Porco holding Reiner’s hand and dragging the larger boy behind him, Porco went lead them down another ally in their dash to get home but Reiner’s hold on Porco’s hand tightened and he pulled the smaller boy back toward him.

“Reiner what-”  
“Let’s find another path back to the internment zone.”  
“Wha- but Reiner-”

Before Porco could question Reiner’s actions, the back door to a small shoddy restaurant burst open and a large man came outside. The two boys held onto each other as the man looked over at them in shock, Reiner quietly tried to push Porco behind him slightly. The man straightened up and glared down at Reiner.

“Why are you here? DIDN’T I TELL YOU I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOUR FACE!”

Porco jumped and looked between his friend and this man. The two were practically identical, the only difference being Reiners full golden hair. Porco sucked his teeth as he remembered every time Reiners mom would say Reiner looked like his father.   
“We were just leaving.”

Reiner subtly pushed Porco away from the ally and they both started running towards the gate before curfew could come, Porco could feel pain shoot through his leg with every step, he struggled to keep pace but he could only focus on the fear in Reiner’s eye’s, a fear that took hold as soon as they walked down that alley. 

Porco could feel his leg giving out, his knees knocking the ground before quickly pushing himself back up to try and keep up with Reiner. Porco could feel tears spring to his eyes as his leg gave out again, pain whipped across his thigh, dropping to one knee he squeezed Reiners hand tightly and looked up at him.

Reiner looked absolutely terrified, and why wouldn't he, his whole family could be killed because of what Porco just learnt. Porco couldn't care for that right now though he could hardly walk. They both knew it, there was no way he would make it back for curfew.   
“Please don’t leave me behind…”

Porco felt Reiner’s arms wrap around him, the larger teen pressed him close to his chest and continued his dead sprint towards the gate, but the sun was almost completely down. They had missed curfew. 

The sound of barking was getting louder as Reiner continued running and Porco took the time to think about what he saw, Reiner and that man knew each other, they looked almost exactly alike in build and facial features, Porco looked up at Reiner’s horror-stricken face, as Porco’s ears started to ring with the sound of dog’s barking. 

He felt Reiner stop short and the two boys slammed into a wall, Porco could hear the sound of dog’s barking clearly now, and the sound of flesh tearing. It seems they weren't the only ones who were late. The two boys looked around the corner at the Marlian officers standing over a pack of dogs tearing apart a young girl. Thunder roared overhead, drowning out the girl's screams and the two quietly slunk back into the shadows.

The two stumbled down into the dark alleys of Marley, eventually, they both collapsed in a pile of garbage as it began to rain, they pressed close together as everything that just happened began to sink in.   
“That girl…”  
“Don't think about it, we just gotta hide till morning.”  
“Your dad?”  
“Don't-” 

Porco nodded and held onto Reiner tightly, the shock slowly leaving his body, slowly relaxing, he could feel Reiner relax against him as the rain pounded around them, the cold wetness of it was making Porco’s leg cramp up.   
“I think the only difference between us and those island devils might be what monsters they are feeding us too.”

Porco looked up at Reiners solemn face Porco felt rage burn through him at Reiners words but it quickly burnt out as the sight of that girl getting torn apart replayed in his head.

“They abandoned us… their evil”  
“The Marlins think we’re evil to”  
“We proved our loyalty, right? We’re warriors.”  
“And the world is making weapons stronger than our titans… what will they do when they have tanks that can withstand more than me, then they have bombs that can do more damage than Bertholdt? We would be useless, what happens then?”

Porco looked away from the other boy, rubbing the smell of garbage from his nose before pressing back against Reiner, for warmth he assured himself quietly.  
“Well, that’s a big what if”  
“Face it, Porco, we’re the only thing giving our people worth… if it comes down to it they could kill us all and we would be powerless to stop them.”

Porco felt water running down his face. He couldn't tell if it was rain or tears anymore, he had never seen Reiner look so serious, his eyes dull and broken. The burly teen looked to become a shell, he knew Reiner was right, they were all alive because they were useful, and they were reminded every day that they were at the mercy of those around them.

The two spent a while pressed together in the rain shaking quietly surrounded by garbage, that was until they heard the telling clicks of military boots walking down the street, the two jumped into action pressing further into the trash pile as the officers went past, biting their tongues and shaking quietly.

They quietly began to drift off to sleep, covered in dirt and trash, and shaking in the cold rain. Porco pressed into Reiners warm chest slowly drifting off. He could hear Reiner’s heart beating, a low thump mixing with the high ring of the rain.   
Reiner and Porco spent the night uneasily shifting in and out of sleep. It was maybe half past midnight when a door to the back alley opened, the two snapped fully awake looking wide-eyed at a skinny blonde boy, the boy must be about their age. The boy looked back at the two in shock, his mouth dropped and he dropped the garbage bag in his hand.

Porco felt Reiner tense beside him, the other boy took a step back, Porco could see fear flash through the boy’s eye’s, and why wouldn’t he be scared, Reiner was a tank of a young man. Porco tried to match Reiner’s glare. The boy looked them over before the fear suddenly dropped from his eyes.

“You’re a warrior? What are you doing out here”  
Reiner glanced at his red armband before looking back up at the other boy straightening up more.  
“We missed the curfew, what of it?”  
The boy looked back into his home for a few moments before waving the two in.  
“Come on! Before my mom wakes up”

Reiner and Porco followed the boy quickly ready to get out of the rain, Porco had a moment to think about how Annie would chew them out if she knew they had followed a stranger into their house.

The boy led them into a bedroom, the room was probably the size of the other two boy’s rooms put together, yet it was also stuck in that awkward phase between childhood and adulthood that had struck the other two’s rooms.   
“You two stay I need to finish taking out the garbage”

They watched as the boy left the room scrambling back to the back door. Porco looked up at Reiner who looked just as uncertain as Porco felt, Reiner, glanced down at him and let out a shaky breath before giving him a smirk.  
“This kid has his own room twice the size of ours and he still looks like a twig?”  
Porco had to bite back a laugh.

“Reiner stop.”  
“Stand in the wind, he’d get blown away!”  
“Reiner!”   
“I’m just saying”

Porco snorted and tried to choke back his laughter as the door opened again and the boy came back in carrying a bucket of steaming water as well as rags and soap. The water sloshed around in the bucket as the boy struggled to carry everything at once, neither Reiner nor Porco offered to help him, they just watched in confusion.

The boy carefully set the bucket down spilling some water on the carpet and the boy handed them both the soap and rags.  
“You two get cleaned up, and I’ll get you something to eat!”

Porco could see Reiner trying to find the words to talk to the boy, to ask him why he was helping them, to ask for even his name, but the door was already closed and the boy was gone. Porco snorted as Reiners' face pulled into an awkward expression. Porco’s snort became a chuckle as Reiner turned to glare at him. That was until a warm wet rag slapped him in the face.

Porco grabbed the rag and was ready to chuck it back at Reiner until the soft voice of a woman could be heard talking beyond the door.  
“Niccolo what are you doing?”  
“I’m just getting a nighttime snack mom”  
“Snack? There's enough food here to feed a small family Niccolo”  
“I’m really hungry?”  
“Well, I think your eyes are bigger than your stomach.”  
“I’m a growing boy, I'll eat it!”

The other two boys heard someone sigh and walk away, then the bedroom door opened and the blonde, Niccolo apparently came back carrying paper bags full of food, he placed the bags down and started pulling out containers of chicken, steamed vegetables, rice, beef and all sorts. The two looked over at the hot meal and made to move towards the food but Niccolo blocked their path.

“You gotta finish washing up first”  
The boy looked down at them unwavering, Reiner could see the boy sweating and sighed moving back over to the bucket and began to wash the smell of trash that clung to him, Porco quickly following his lead.

Reiner couldn't remember the last time he had warm water to wash with, and though this was the most awkward way of bathing he’s ever done, it was a nice feeling, to have warm water. Reiner looked over at Porco who was happily using the water to wash out his hair, the red-haired boy had his eyes closed and was softly humming as he enjoyed the warm water on his head.

Porco looked up at him, his damp hair falling around his face, it was the first time Reiner had ever seen Porco’s hair down.  
“You look like a soggy lion”

Porco snorted and began to crawl towards the food pushing past Niccolo to grab at some chicken and rice, Porco began shoving food in his mouth Reiner crawled up beside Porco and joined him in grabbing as much food as he could and shoving it in his mouth. 

Niccolo sat across from them smiling widely. Porco tried to pretend that the skinny boy wasn’t there, he felt like one of the stray dogs that roamed the internment zone, being watched by a small child that loomed just a touch too close. This Niccolo kid was lucky the food was so good, lest Porco be tempted to dropkick him across the room.

Porco had just shoved a handful of steamed green beans in his mouth when Niccolo finally opened his mouth.  
“You two sure eat a lot”   
Porco swallowed hard and gave the boy an awkward smile.  
“I think this is the most food I've seen in my life!”  
“That has to be a joke! You two are huge!”

Reiner chuckled and whipped at his chin.  
“You would be surprised, this food is amazing, thank you!”  
“Thank you! I made it with my mom, if you guys don't eat much, then eat as much as you can! Every last bite!”  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The next morning Niccolo snuck them out the same back door they had come in from.  
“Reiner, Porco, I want us to be friends, if you ever need help again you can come here.”

Porco shook his head sadly and turned to Niccolo and sighed.  
“That won't work Niku, you’ve been a great acquaintance but if we get caught socializing with Marlian civilians we could all get in trouble.”  
Porco glanced over at Reiner at that last part reminding the bigger teen he hadn’t forgotten yesterday.

Niccolo sighed sadly and shook his head.  
“well, when I am old enough and I can join the army we won't have to worry! Just remember if you ever do need help I am here okay?”  
“Thank you, Niccolo”

Reiner and Porco started making their way to the gate and back to the familiar streets they live on. As they walked down the mud road towards Reiner’s house the boys looked up as shouting was heard from up the street. Reiners mom, Aunt, Uncle and cousin came running down the street toward the two. Gabi threw herself onto her cousin tugging on his sleeves, her face covered in tears and snot as she babbled up at them unintelligibly. 

Reiner picked up the five-year-old and patted her back gently as the adults caught up and grabbed on to the two teens, the three adults hugged them both tight and dragged them back to the Braun house.

The two boys sat on the old scratchy rug in the main room, Reiner hugging little Gabi to his chest, as the three adults rounded on them.  
“Where were you two?!”  
“It's fine we got help from a friend”  
“No one in town had seen you all evening and you waltz back the next morning as if nothing happened?! Everyone was looking for you!”  
“WELL, WE’RE FINE OKAY?”

Porco looked over at Reiner and Karina glaring each other down Gabi was starting to cry again pressing her face into her cousin's chest and sniffling softly stuck between the tension. If Reiner wasn’t going, to be honest, he was.

“We ran into Reiner’s father, it was an accident”  
The whole Braun family whipped toward him, the tension doubled and he couldn't blame them, all their lives were at risk, Reiner would be fed to another, and the others would be sent to Paradis. 

Porco looked around at everyone’s terrified faces and landed on Reiner who’s face looked like a sheet, and Porco realized that Reiner expected him to rat them out. And he had everything to gain from doing so, he was next in line for a titan, if Reiner was out of the picture he would be the armoured titan, and he wouldn’t run the chance of being labelled a traitor. 

Porco looked Reiner in the eye for a solid minute, he could feel the terror rolling off the whole family except for little Gabi who had no idea what was happening.   
“He was kind of a dick”  
Reiner let out a shaky breath as his family followed suit as Reiner looked over at Porco a small relieved smile on his face.  
“You shouldn't say dick…”

Porco only nodded scooching closer to Reiner to pat down Gabi’s hair quietly.  
“Thank you”


End file.
